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Jazz Articles about Mateusz Smoczyński

About Mateusz Smoczyński

Album Review

Some instruments can come across as far removed from the jazz orbit--especially when we think of them as vehicles for a soloist's showcase. Yet a number of resolute experimenters have worked hard to prove otherwise, with commendable skill. Among others, such is the case with Dorothy Ashby on harp, Julius Watkins on French horn and Garvin Bushell on oboe. The marimba is another of those devices that at first seem foreign to the genre, more associated with Latin or radically ...

Album Review

Mateusz Smoczyński: Adam's Apple

Read "Adam's Apple" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
December 18, 2024

Polish violinist Mateusz Smoczyński has long slipped effortlessly between the worlds of jazz and classical music, flitting between his own small jazz combos and contemporary string ensembles. Albums such as Confetti Man (Azica records, 2014) with The Turtle Island Quartet, Penderecki (Universal Music Poland, 2019) with Atom String Quartet, and the duo albums Speaking Sound (ACT Music, 2020) with Joachim Kühn and Keep On Turnin' (Seifert Records, 2020) with Stephan Braun have marked Smoczyński out as one of the most ...

Album Review

Fryderyk HD: Sounds Good

Read "Sounds Good" reviewed by Iouri Lnogradski

by Iouri Lnogradski
January 1, 2022

The “HD" in this artist's name might seem like an objective coincidence (more on that below) or an elaborate PR nod to the obvious abbreviation for High Definition, “high precision." However, the reality is much more complex and cosmopolitan. The musician's full name is Frédéric Hoang Dong. He was born in Poland to ethnic Vietnamese parents. The notion of “high precision" in his life story emerges during his musical education when he unexpectedly decides to specialize in sound engineering after ...

Album Review

Fryderyk HD: Sounds Good

Read "Sounds Good" reviewed by Scott Gudell

by Scott Gudell
October 23, 2021

Fryderyk HD has a lot of pins in his musical map. His parents are Vietnamese and Polish, he was born in Poland and trained at both the Frederic Chopin University of Music (Warsaw) and Berklee College of Music (Boston.) His initial entry into the world of music was via sound engineering but he eventually switched to writing and performing with piano his instrument of choice. Sounds Good almost seems like a 'greatest hits' for the young pianist since ...

Album Review

Fryderyk HD: Sounds Good

Read "Sounds Good" reviewed by Geno Thackara

by Geno Thackara
July 9, 2021

Fryderyk HD clearly knows his stuff in the jazz world and, just as clearly, considers it a jumping-off point more than a home niche. His first outing has all the marks of a fresh mind whirling with a myriad of ideas, and ready to try them all on for size. Thankfully, it is also the kind of debut which is about exploring and synthesizing one's influences more than recycling them. Sounds Good can appeal to an impressive range of tastes ...

Album Review

Stefan Braun & Mateusz Smoczynski: Keep On Turnin'

Read "Keep On Turnin'" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
January 28, 2021

A violin and cello duo might spark thoughts of chamber music, but Polish violinist Mateusz Smoczynski and German cellist Stefan Braun, classically trained though they are, are improvising musicians at heart; with Keep on Turnin' they revisit the jazz, fusion and funk songs that provided the soundtrack in their formative years. Though this is Smoczynski and Braun's debut, the mutual understanding nurtured over a decade of playing together is evident in both the intricate interplay and the ease with which ...

Album Review

Mateusz Smoczynski: Metamorphoses

Read "Metamorphoses" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
June 13, 2018

Though violinist Mateusz Smoczyński has played with the likes of Tomasz Stanko, Branford Marsalis, Joachim Kuhn and Anna Maria Jopek, he's perhaps best known internationally for his four-year stint in Turtle Island Quartet and, currently, Atom String Quartet. With the latter, Smoczyński recorded Seifert (Zbigniew Seifert Foundation, 2017), its brilliant tribute to violin virtuoso Zbigniew Seifert. Seifert's shadow looms large again here, not least because this recording is a direct result of Smoczyński winning the 2nd Zbigniew Seifert International Violin ...